Phil Grimm's Progress

Losing the Plot and Finding the Way

Phil Grimm’s Progress is a modern myth for anxious times. It calls to everyday heroes who are bigger than they imagine.

In a foreign land, the Traveler awakes from dreadful injury and embarks on a quest he does not understand. Magical guides instruct and deceive him as he seeks to answer the greatest question: “Who am I?” His journey to Mountain City enthralls the natives. Can he possibly be what they believe he is?

Based in current-day Pittsburgh, Phil Grimm is a spy, an energy consortium’s secret weapon to crack environmental activist networks. As the nation polarizes and extremism festers, he works undercover, but an older secret defines and divides him.

Lila could be the genuine article, or she could be just another protester Phil uses to help his clients stay a step ahead. She creates alternative realities for a living and wants to invite humanity to play, but her impish nature conceals rare wisdom. Can she look beyond Phil’s deceit? What can her game teach us?

We peer into alternative worlds, inspired by great sages – ancient and modern, scientific and spiritual, from Lao Tzu to Einstein. How do these realms relate to Phil’s life, to the Traveler’s, to the dystopian future we glimpse, to our own?The bottom falls from Phil’s world, beyond his control. When he loses himself, is there any way back – for him, for Lila or for them? The Traveler may hold the key.

As corporations wage biological warfare, civilization teeters. New leaders step forward to learn and serve, but how do these pioneers address a crumbling society? When cataclysm rocks the Earth, can anyone arrest the fall? Or prepare for what follows it?​In a story about stories, Phil Grimm’s Progress shows us how to see the plots we populate and to explore others. Ultimately, it invites and inspires us to create our own.